# The Culture Map by Erin Meyer  Author:: Shortform ## Highlights > In an increasingly globalized world, understanding other cultures is an essential business skill. In The Culture Map, Erin Meyer presents eight axes you can use as a framework to analyze these differences: Communication, Feedback, Thinking, Leadership, Decision-Making, Trust, Disagreement, and Time Perception ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/a0422884-3337-42da-8619-c36cbc035f35)) > remember that while culture is an essential piece of the puzzle, it is only a piece. Our personalities aren’t defined exclusively by culture, but we are all heavily influenced by the cultures we grew up in. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/95594148-9b59-47ae-a8c8-62aa960a5b41)) > Online reviewers who find fault with the book think that Meyer relies too heavily on personal anecdotes from her time at INSEAD and fails to provide concrete evidence for her argument. Some think that identifying cultural norms without sufficient evidence perpetuates harmful cultural stereotypes. Reviewers also mention that Meyer focuses too heavily on some regions and neglects others, specifically Central and South America and Africa. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/43a45ee6-6b58-46e2-8f2f-7e518d5cfe80)) > Meyer's book repackages many of the ideas presented by Hall, Hofstede, Trompenaars, and Hampdens-Turner. Sometimes, she cites their work in the book, and she thanks them in her Acknowledgments at the end of the text. However, she often makes claims based on their ideas without citing their work. This may explain why many reviewers thought that Meyer didn't provide sufficient evidence for her claims. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/be6e6942-24c2-4d95-9aad-fd028a778ab5)) > Meyer visually represents the axes in a “culture map.” ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/d61623be-0949-46a1-b27a-d2e5c98d7229)) > While a great resource for visual learners, some readers find Meyer’s culture map problematic. The most common critique is that, in her chapter on Thinking, Meyer uses the axis only to explain cultural differences in thinking among Western cultures. Asian cultures, according to Meyer, use a third form of thinking that she doesn’t represent on an axis. Therefore, the visual is ineffective for determining cultural differences between non-Asian and Asian cultures. Other reviewers find the visuals overly complicated and confusing. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/8f336333-8f47-4f73-9fbc-81e3a76248a2)) > Critiques of Meyer’s Approach > Some argue that, even in a relatively ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/166cd219-001a-447f-ab45-470436a392c5)) > Critiques of Meyer’s Approach ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/4a34e712-65ca-4fdb-ad9b-899212c6358f)) > (Shortform note: Evaluating cultures based on a midpoint seems reasonable. However, Meyer doesn’t share the range of behaviors she considered for each country. It’s possible for cultures to share the same midpoint even if their ranges differ dramatically. Imagine that the range of acceptable behavior in Culture A ranges from negative five to five, but in Culture B it ranges from negative one to one. Zero is the midpoint of both these ranges. So by Meyer’s logic, these two cultures have the same midpoint even though the first has a lower range of acceptable behavior. Given this fact, Meyer’s use of the midpoint could be misleading.) ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/917f0248-cd0e-4487-8f51-45625642e2ff)) > A crucial element of understanding how to use these axes is cultural relativity. Cultural relativity is the idea that you cannot evaluate a culture’s position on the axis independently. You can only evaluate it in relation to another culture’s position on that same axis. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/513fcff2-7081-4310-864c-3d3c7830d5d7)) > many argue that attributing people’s traits to culture reinforces stereotypes, so you should ignore cultural influence and evaluate people individually. But Meyer argues that this is counterproductive. Even if we’re unaware of them, we all have cultural biases. So you might think you’re evaluating someone independently of cultural influence—but in reality, you’re evaluating them based on your own cultural norms. In order to accurately assess someone’s actions in the workplace, you need to know how culture influences both you and the people you’re working with. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/2740505f-678f-445c-8319-524b3d0ddbd1)) > Shortform note: If you’re already fairly culturally competent, you may not think you need further cultural education. In this case, you may want to consider cultural humility instead. Coined in the healthcare field, cultural humility refers to the idea that understanding other cultures is a lifelong learning process: Even the most culturally aware people are still susceptible to unconscious biases. Luckily, research shows that we can start to change our own biases once we understand them. Strategies for discovering and combating our own biases include taking association tests and diversifying the perspectives around you so you have a better understanding of how others view the world.) ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/6da181ef-245c-4199-b2f7-a55a16738799)) > The second common criticism is that lots of people grow up multiculturally, so Meyer’s framework isn’t sophisticated enough to encounter everybody you’ll meet in the workplace. But in her introduction, Meyer suggests that by reading her book, multicultural people can learn how the various cultures they grew up with influenced their personalities ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/f03ff9be-9d50-484a-b3bf-ef40ecae8ca8)) --- Title: The Culture Map by Erin Meyer Author: Shortform Tags: readwise, books date: 2024-01-30 --- # The Culture Map by Erin Meyer  Author:: Shortform ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > In an increasingly globalized world, understanding other cultures is an essential business skill. In The Culture Map, Erin Meyer presents eight axes you can use as a framework to analyze these differences: Communication, Feedback, Thinking, Leadership, Decision-Making, Trust, Disagreement, and Time Perception ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/a0422884-3337-42da-8619-c36cbc035f35)) > remember that while culture is an essential piece of the puzzle, it is only a piece. Our personalities aren’t defined exclusively by culture, but we are all heavily influenced by the cultures we grew up in. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/95594148-9b59-47ae-a8c8-62aa960a5b41)) > Online reviewers who find fault with the book think that Meyer relies too heavily on personal anecdotes from her time at INSEAD and fails to provide concrete evidence for her argument. Some think that identifying cultural norms without sufficient evidence perpetuates harmful cultural stereotypes. Reviewers also mention that Meyer focuses too heavily on some regions and neglects others, specifically Central and South America and Africa. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/43a45ee6-6b58-46e2-8f2f-7e518d5cfe80)) > Meyer's book repackages many of the ideas presented by Hall, Hofstede, Trompenaars, and Hampdens-Turner. Sometimes, she cites their work in the book, and she thanks them in her Acknowledgments at the end of the text. However, she often makes claims based on their ideas without citing their work. This may explain why many reviewers thought that Meyer didn't provide sufficient evidence for her claims. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/be6e6942-24c2-4d95-9aad-fd028a778ab5)) > Meyer visually represents the axes in a “culture map.” ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/d61623be-0949-46a1-b27a-d2e5c98d7229)) > While a great resource for visual learners, some readers find Meyer’s culture map problematic. The most common critique is that, in her chapter on Thinking, Meyer uses the axis only to explain cultural differences in thinking among Western cultures. Asian cultures, according to Meyer, use a third form of thinking that she doesn’t represent on an axis. Therefore, the visual is ineffective for determining cultural differences between non-Asian and Asian cultures. Other reviewers find the visuals overly complicated and confusing. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/8f336333-8f47-4f73-9fbc-81e3a76248a2)) > Critiques of Meyer’s Approach > Some argue that, even in a relatively ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/166cd219-001a-447f-ab45-470436a392c5)) > Critiques of Meyer’s Approach ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/4a34e712-65ca-4fdb-ad9b-899212c6358f)) > (Shortform note: Evaluating cultures based on a midpoint seems reasonable. However, Meyer doesn’t share the range of behaviors she considered for each country. It’s possible for cultures to share the same midpoint even if their ranges differ dramatically. Imagine that the range of acceptable behavior in Culture A ranges from negative five to five, but in Culture B it ranges from negative one to one. Zero is the midpoint of both these ranges. So by Meyer’s logic, these two cultures have the same midpoint even though the first has a lower range of acceptable behavior. Given this fact, Meyer’s use of the midpoint could be misleading.) ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/917f0248-cd0e-4487-8f51-45625642e2ff)) > A crucial element of understanding how to use these axes is cultural relativity. Cultural relativity is the idea that you cannot evaluate a culture’s position on the axis independently. You can only evaluate it in relation to another culture’s position on that same axis. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/513fcff2-7081-4310-864c-3d3c7830d5d7)) > many argue that attributing people’s traits to culture reinforces stereotypes, so you should ignore cultural influence and evaluate people individually. But Meyer argues that this is counterproductive. Even if we’re unaware of them, we all have cultural biases. So you might think you’re evaluating someone independently of cultural influence—but in reality, you’re evaluating them based on your own cultural norms. In order to accurately assess someone’s actions in the workplace, you need to know how culture influences both you and the people you’re working with. ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/2740505f-678f-445c-8319-524b3d0ddbd1)) > Shortform note: If you’re already fairly culturally competent, you may not think you need further cultural education. In this case, you may want to consider cultural humility instead. Coined in the healthcare field, cultural humility refers to the idea that understanding other cultures is a lifelong learning process: Even the most culturally aware people are still susceptible to unconscious biases. Luckily, research shows that we can start to change our own biases once we understand them. Strategies for discovering and combating our own biases include taking association tests and diversifying the perspectives around you so you have a better understanding of how others view the world.) ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/6da181ef-245c-4199-b2f7-a55a16738799)) > The second common criticism is that lots of people grow up multiculturally, so Meyer’s framework isn’t sophisticated enough to encounter everybody you’ll meet in the workplace. But in her introduction, Meyer suggests that by reading her book, multicultural people can learn how the various cultures they grew up with influenced their personalities ([View Highlight](https://www.shortform.com/app/highlights/f03ff9be-9d50-484a-b3bf-ef40ecae8ca8))